Christianity has always changed like a chameleon to its culture and times. It's emphatically NOT the case that the Christianity of the 1st or 2nd centuries has survived. The heresy of a previous generation just becomes the orthodoxy of the next one. Subsequent generations develop an amnesia about what Christianity used to be. That's it. The conservatives in one generation become the moderates in the next one who become the liberals in the following one. In each of these subsequent generations conservatives who object to this trend start their own churches, publishing houses and seminaries. Then these new churches, publishing houses and seminaries follow the same trend. And as they do, conservatives break off again and the trend starts all over. Do you want to know the Christianity of the future in America? I suspect it might look more like the inclusivist/universalism of Rob Bell along with the pop-psychology gospel of Joel Olsteen.
Debunking Christianity: The Christianity of the Future is Innoxious
I disagree. I've heard many an assertion that Christianity has changed since the first and second centuries Anno Domini but there is very little discussion of how. Only a moron would walk into church today and think that church services were the same during the time of the Apostles. And Loftus is most likely correct that many people will continue to follow "the inclusivist/universalism of Rob Bell along with the pop-psychology gospel of Joel Olsteen." Loftus is also correct that this isn't the Gospel of the Bible. Here is the fail: If it's so hopeless to understand what the first Christians believed then how does Loftus know that Rob Bell and Joel Olsteen is preaching somethings different? I agree that they are but I disagree that there no living people today who are attempting to live what the Bible teaches - following Jesus Christ. This week Dr Kenneth Samples posted a quote from Dr Alister McGrath that shows what I mean:
Christianity is a strongly ethical faith. This does not, however, mean that Christianity is about a set of rules, in which Christians mechanically conform to a set of instructions. Rather, it is about a set of values which arises from being redeemed.– Alister E. McGrath, An Introduction to Christianity (Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell, 1997), xix–xx.
Quote of the Week: Alister McGrath, 2
